1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sheet material receiving device, and more particularly to a sheet material receiving device provided near the lower part of the sheet discharging portion of an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus or a copying apparatus to receive sheet materials discharged from the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, compactness and light weight of image forming apparatuses such as facsimile apparatuses or copying apparatuses have been particularly strongly desired. As a result, it has heretofore been usual that the tray for receiving recording paper sheets, originals and other sheet materials discharged from the image forming apparatus is not incorporated in the apparatus body but is mounted in a jutting-out relationship with the apparatus and correspondingly the apparatus body is made compact.
As a result, even if the apparatus body is made compact, the jutting-out tray makes the installation space correspondingly larger and this has led to a disadvantage that the compactness in the true sense of the word has not yet been achieved.
Also, rolled paper such as thermosensitive recording paper used in facsimile or the like has a strong curling tendency and it has been difficult to receive such paper on the linear surface of the tray in good order.
Recently, to meet the requirement for compactness of the apparatus body, there is a tendency of keeping the length of the paper unchanged and reducing the outside diameter of the rolled paper as much as possible and therefore, a method of reducing the diameter of the roll core as much as possible is adopted with a result that the curling tendency of the paper becomes more remarkable, and development of a paper receiving method which can cope therewith is strongly desired.
Also, when records of a plurality of originals are to be made by such an image forming apparatus, if recording is effected in succession from the first page of the originals, the recorded sheets discharged from the apparatus are discharged with their image bearing surfaces facing upward and thus, the recorded sheets received in the tray of the conventional type are piled in succession with the first page as the lowermost sheet and the second and subsequent pages overlying the first page, and the sheets piled on the tray are opposite in order to the originals. Therefore, the operation of re-arranging the recorded sheets in the order from the first page after completion of the recording operation, i.e., the paginating operation, must be carried out, and this has been very much time-consuming.
An example of the prior art will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the facsimile apparatus provided with a conventional sheet material receiving tray of this type. The facsimile apparatus 1 shown there is provided with an image reading and transmitting system for reading information from an original by an optical system 3 while feeding the original on an original supporting table 2, and transmitting the image information, and an image receiving and recording system for recording the image on thermosensitive recording paper 6 by a thermal head 7, the recording paper 6 being paid away from a recording paper roll 4 in accordance with the received image information and transported by a platen roller 5. Designated by 8 is a power source unit including a power source device.
On the left side of the image forming apparatus body 1, there is provided an original receiving tray 10 for receiving originals 9 successively fed out from the original supporting table 2, and on the right side of the apparatus body 1, there is provided a recording paper receiving tray 12 for receiving recording paper having images recorded thereon by the thermal head 7 and thereafter cut to a predetermined length, for example, the length of format A4, by a cutter 11.
In such a conventional image forming apparatus, the trays 10 and 12 jut out on the opposite sides of the apparatus body 1 and therefore, even if the apparatus body is made compact, these jutting-out trays prevent the actual installation space from being very much reduced. If both of these trays are installed only on one side of the apparatus body, the installation space may be reduced by an amount corresponding to one tray, but in such case, the two driving systems for originals and recording paper, respectively, will be concentrated on one side of the apparatus body, and this will aggravate the spatial efficiency of the interior of the apparatus body and will complicate the driving systems, and this in turn may lead not only to reduced reliability but also to greatly increased cost.
Also, recording paper sheets discharged onto the tray 12 are discharged with their image bearing surfaces facing upward and therefore, when a plurality of sheets of records are to be prepared in succession, the recording paper sheets are piled in such a manner that the first page is the lowermost sheet and the last page is the uppermost sheet and accordingly, pagenation becomes necessary after completion of the recording operation.